Gothic Elements Gothic can be defined as literature written to conduct “frightening, feral scenarios in which mysterious secrets, extreme isolation, grotesque images, and characters’ duress combine to create a dark and horrid image for its bold readers” (Renaldo 2). Generally presenting the same themes and tropes, Gothic literature discusses madness, isolation, disease, nightmares, and death. Although in some stories, it also explores unmentionable topics such as murder, suicide, and incest. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a story of a spinster woman who has killed her lover and lain for years beside his decaying body. The story deals with a murder caused by possessive love, and it elucidates the face of death which results in repulsion and compassion. “A Rose for Emily” represents Southern Gothic literature through descriptions of Emily, her house, necrophilia, and the theme of death. To begin with, the narrator portrays Emily Grierson as a once prominent member of the community. However, after the death of her father, she is pitied and often irritating, demanding to live life on her own terms. In the beginning of the story, the author describes her as looking “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, [look] like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough” (Faulkner 53). Being isolated from the outside world since her father died and Homer Barron, her lover, went missing, Emily becomes a muted and mysterious figure. She begins to enforce her own sense of law and conduct, such as when she refuses to pay her taxes or state her purpose for buying the poison. Lu Ying Qian of Baidu Library states that Emily “was an unrealistic stubborn woman” (Qian 6). She continued to ignore the law, refuse to pay taxes, and not dispose of the dead. Emily’s eccentric description adds suspense to the plot and creates a mysterious atmosphere. In addition, Emily’s house exemplifies gothic characteristics. According to Audrey Thibodeau, “What used to be a big and beautiful estate is now an ugly and desolated shack” (Thibodeau 1). In addition to the house being described as mysterious, large, and empty, it is also a shrine to the living past, and the sealed upstairs bedroom is her macabre trophy room where she preserves the man she would not allow to leave her. His rotting and decaying corpse produces a horrid stench that emits from the dusty and shadowy house, and this odor intensifies the dark atmosphere around the house. Pingping Yang says that “the house once full of nobility is now ‘an eyesore among eyesore’” (Yang 2). As the house is described as a remnant of the past, Ying Qian states that “it [is] easy to notice the incompatible atmosphere with the age” (Qian 4). The use of terms such as “smelled of dust and disuse” (Faulkner 53) and “a closed, dank smell” (Faulkner 53) suggest neglect and decay. Each of these elements ties in with the gothic setting. Furthermore, necrophilia, “an action where an individual sleeps with the deceased” (Renaldo 3), is deeply rooted in Gothic Literature. In a broader sense, the term also describes a powerful desire to control another, usually in the context of a romantic or deeply personal relationship. Necrophiliacs tend to be so controlling in their relationships that they ultimately resort to bonding with unresponsive entities with no resistance or will—in other words, with dead bodies. Emily’s father controlled her before his death, and she ultimately transfers this control to Homer. Unable to find a traditional way to express her desire to possess Homer, Emily takes his life with the arsenic she bought from the drugstore to achieve total power over him. Emily not only took away her lover’s life, but she also kept the dead body in her bedroom for forty years. As a result, she punishes Homer by forcing “eternal life” with her. After Emily passes away, the community finds Homer’s rotting, decayed corpse in the upstairs bedroom. In the short story, Faulkner states that members of the community notice on “the second pillow [an] indentation of a head. One of [the members] lifted [up] a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 59). In all actuality, Emily becomes so terribly desperate for human love that she clings to his corpse for many years. Ryan Renaldo believes that, “For Faulkner necrophilia serves as a tool for Southern Gothic writing” (Renaldo 5). Finally, one of the major themes of this short story is death. In fact, death looms over the story from the narrator’s mention of Emily’s death at the beginning of the story through the account of Emily’s death-haunted life. In fact, an article in Teen Ink says that “Miss Emily is unable to grip the idea of death and suffers with tremendous denial” ("A Rose for Emily"). In the story, Miss Emily is in ultimate denial at the death of her excessively controlling father. Faulkner states that “Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead” (Faulkner 54). In addition, Emily tries to defile death by holding on to Homer’s corpse to ensure that he would never leave her. Emily, a fixture in the community, gives in to death slowly. Even though Emily attempts to exert power over death by denying the fact of death itself, death ultimately triumphs. In every case, death prevails over every attempt to master it. In the final analysis, “A Rose for Emily” is a Gothic story about a traditional, stubborn, and unhappy person who is unwilling to let go of the past. Emily’s character, her immense and decayed house, her necrophilia, and the theme of death are all events that prove it. Each of these factors in Faulkner’s short story makes the reader suspect that something terrible is going to happen in the end. One can only hope that Miss Emily could be considered totally insane as she lay night after night with the rotting corpse of her lover, as to assign any other reason for her bizarre behavior would be impossible. All aspects lead to her lonely death.

Works Cited
"Critical Analysis of "A Rose for Emily"" Teen Ink. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature to Go. 2nd ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 51-59. Print.
Qian, Ying. "Study on the Gothic Characteristics in Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily." Baidu. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Renaldo, Ryan. "The Dead Never Speak: William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily." Southern Gothic. Academia.edu, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.
Thibodeau, Audrey. "The Gothic Elements of "A Rose for Emily"" Rimstead.web. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.
Yang, Pingping. “A road to destruction and self-destruction: the same fate of Emily And Elly.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies 3.10 (2013): 1850+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 Apr. 2014